Sixteen contestants participate in a real life military style boot camp 24 hours a day. The drill instructors put the new recruits through special training activites and obstacle courses to prepare them for the missions which they will take part in on each of the 8 episodes. At the end of these missions the recruits face an evaluation by their peers to determine who goes and who stays. On the final episode the two remaining recruits vie for the $500,000 dollar prize.